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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

First Birthday WellCheck and the Horrors of Milk

The boys had their one-year well-check the Monday after their birthday. Their pediatrician said they looked good and were doing really well. They had to get four shots, which they were not too keen on, but they did ok. Unfortunately, the pediatrician didn't give me the usual printouts with all their measurements and percentiles, so these are approximated from looking at their charts online (our pediatrician uses MyChart, which lets the parents look at the records online) and plugging numbers into an online calculator, which I don't know if I believe:

We also got the ok to switch the boys from formula to whole milk, cold turkey. I was so thrilled to not have to deal with formula! We took the boys to Trader Joe's and picked up some organic whole milk. I've gotta say, I was really disappointed with the new (to Houston) Trader Joe's. After having routinely shopped there in Chicago, I felt like this one was tiny and didn't have the same variety of stuff that the ones in Chicago did.

Anyway, we made the milk switch on Monday, and on Friday, I noticed that James was really straining to poop, and the poor little guy was crying because he hurt. I called the doctor, and the nurse I talked to said that they wanted his belly to be x-rayed in case of obstruction (this was after giving him a suppository, which did nothing). The nurse insisted that it couldn't possibly be the milk, even though I was certain it was. She even told me to keep giving him milk. Yeah, I don't think so. Of course, by now it was after hours, and they don't have an x-ray tech after hours even though they have appointments, so they made me go to Texas Children's ER. I called mom and asked her to meet me with a sandwich, because I hadn't eaten dinner. We got there about 7 pm and left at 3. IN THE MORNING. It was awful. They gave him multiple suppositories - all he did was push them out. X-rays showed no obstruction, thankfully; he was just all backed up. They finally gave him some miralax and told me to bring him back that night if he still hadn't pooped. Thank God, he pooped later that day while I tried to grab a nap. We took the ER doctor's advice and switched both boys to soy milk - there's really no way to give one something and not the other.

Needless to say, that weekend was awful. James's sleep schedule was all off, neither of them were too keen on soy - it was just a mess. When I called the pediatrician on Monday to report in and get his opinion, his nurse relayed that he needed the fat and calories from whole cow's milk and needed to be on it, so just give him miralax every day. What? Are you kidding me? Medicate my child every day with something you aren't even supposed to give babies? I don't think so. That's the one time I have ever really disagreed with him. So, after talking to my friend about how she had switched her 2-year-old over, we set up a slow change - first four days of six ounces of formula with 2 of milk, then four and four, finally two and six, and then all milk. Right now we're about to finish with four and four, and (fingers crossed), all seems to be going well. I think James's system just needed time to adjust.

Finally, a couple pictures in exchange for listening to me talk about poop! =)